by Keith Idec
ROBSON CONCEICAO cannot understand why O’Shaquie Foster feels he was slighted by two judges July 6 in Newark, New Jersey.
The newly crowned WBC super featherweight champion chastised Foster for not fighting aggressively during their 12-round, 130-pound title bout that night. Foster’s safer, somewhat passive approach to a co-feature ESPN televised cost him the WBC belt Conceicao claimed in the fourth title fight of the Brazilian boxer’s career.
Foster’s defence caused Conceicao to land only 11 percent of his punches overall (76-of-701), according to CompuBox’s count.
The former champion connected on 109 of his shots, but judges Tony Lundy (116-112) and Paul Wallace (115-113) still scored Conceicao the winner of eight and seven rounds, respectively. Judge Ron McNair favoured Foster by the score of 116-112, but he lost a split decision on the Shakur Stevenson-Artem Harutyunyan undercard.
The WBC ordered an immediate rematch, which will headline an ESPN+ stream Saturday night from Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York. The 12-round main event between Conceicao (19-2-1, 9 KOs), of Salvador, Brazil, and Foster (22-3, 12 KOs), of Orange, Texas, likely will begin sometime around 3 a.m. GMT in the UK (11 p.m. ET in the United States).
Conceicao, a 2016 Olympic gold medallist, doesn’t see the need for them to fight again.
“I think it was very fair,” Conceicao told Boxing News through his translator. “As a world champion, he should’ve just come to fight and actually looked for the fight, instead of just jabbing every now and again, weaving, going around. I don’t really think that was an approach of a world champion. So, [the decision] was more than fair.”
Foster figures that Conceicao deserved to win two rounds. He has acknowledged, though, that he should’ve been busier, particularly in the later rounds, when Foster felt he was way ahead.
“I was looking at it like my last couple fights, some of ‘em been wars,” Foster informed Boxing News. “So, I just wanted to make one fight easy. I just wanted to make it look easy. I didn’t see myself having to just go out on a limb and take any chances, because I felt like it was unanimous. I really thought it was just a easy fight and a unanimous decision wouldn’t hurt. But sh*t, it didn’t work out like that.”
ESPN’s Mark Kriegel unofficially scored 11 of 12 rounds for Foster, who won 119-109 on his card. Bob Arum – whose company, Top Rank Inc., promotes Conceicao and Foster – felt Conceicao did enough to take the WBC super featherweight title from Foster.
